SnoCo nonprofit teaches running and life skills simultaneously

Published 1:30 am Saturday, February 21, 2026

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A Snohomish County nonprofit is looking to make a difference in the lives of young girls through improving not just their physical health, but their mental health as well.

With a name like Girls on the Run, the nonprofit’s classes may seem ostensibly like just a running club at first, but it really works as a training ground for girls and nonbinary youth to learn skills like self-confidence, healthy communication and interpersonal skills at the same time they’re moving around, said Megan Wolfe, who started the Snohomish County chapter of Girls on the Run.

“The games get them moving, but it’s directly tied to the lesson,” Wolfe said.

Twice a week, coaches working with the nonprofit gather the kids after school and start lessons with a snack and some stretching. After that, they play a game that includes some movement, like a variation on freeze tag, for example. At the same time, they explore personal feelings, like how to help stand up for others when they’re being bullied.

Then, the kids run laps. They train throughout the course of the season, culminating in a celebratory 5K run with a “party atmosphere,” as Wolfe put it.

“It’s one of the happiest finish lines you’ll ever be a part of,” she said.

Girls on the Run is a national nonprofit based in North Carolina, but it has over 160 local chapters spread across the United States and Canada, according to the organization’s website. In 2012, Wolfe began volunteering in the King County organization and fell in love with the program, she told The Daily Herald in a Feb. 12 interview.

“We just love that our program addresses the physical health of the kids, the mental health, emotional health, social health,” Wolfe said. “They’re connecting with each other. Especially post-COVID, those opportunities to try out these emotionally difficult scenarios in an area where you feel safe is so important.”

After Wolfe spent years as a running buddy, her niece, living in Edmonds, took part in the King County 5K event. But she couldn’t take part in the classes as there wasn’t a chapter available in Snohomish County.

Her niece’s grandmother said Wolfe should start one.

Even though Wolfe was busy with a newborn baby and a 3-year-old of her own, she decided to take on the challenge. In March 2015, the program launched in Snohomish County with four teams in Edmonds, serving 50 children. Now, over a decade later, the chapter has served over 5,000 kids countywide.

Brandy Hekker, who spent time as a coach in the program and whose daughter also took part in it, felt she learned just as much coaching as the young students did.

“Some of the lessons that we teach these kids in Girls on the Run, I as an adult had never been taught,” Hekker said Friday. “It gave me coping skills, words to use to navigate conflict resolution and the confidence building that I had never been taught … There’s just such great positive energy.”

Wolfe said students who have gone through the program have often left with increased confidence by the end of it. She’s heard from teachers that kids raise their hand more in class, and heard from principals that kids help others at recess, she said.

“We’ve had kids who could barely speak in front of the group at the beginning,” Wolfe said. “By the end of the season, they’re volunteering to speak at an assembly at school.”

Registration is open for the Spring 2026 Girls on the Run program, available to girls or nonbinary youth in third through eighth grades. Classes begin April 18 and the program fee is $250. Financial aid is available for students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches at school. Children that qualify for free school lunches also receive a pair of running shoes. To register, visit girlsontherunsnoco.org/programs.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.